Luminous advertising display



June 27, 1967 KAI KUHL LUMINOUS ADVERTISING DISPLAY Filed June 1, 1964 [Ill United States Patent 3,327,420 LUMINOUS ADVERTISING DISPLAY Kai Kiihl, 3 Gartenstrasse, 8712 Stafa, Zurich, Switzerland Filed dune 1, 1964, Ser. No. 371,529 3 Claims. (Cl. 40-130) My present invention relates to improvements in luminous advertising displays of the type comprising a plurality of luminous discharge lamps secured to a plate and supplied from a high-frequency source; said lamps not only exercising an advertising effect directly by themselves but additionally also illuminating an advertising means provided with texts, patterns, pictures and the like. In the following specification and claims said advertising means is referred to as advertising face.

Luminous advertising displays of the type indicated are known per se, for example in the form of portable units comprising in a narrow upright housing the high-frequency generator required for feeding the luminous discharge lamps. Said generator may be supplied from the mains, and the high frequency generated thereby is fed to a plurality of electrodes of which pairs are parallel connected. Said electrodes are hidden from View behind the front of the unit and alternately are so connected to the poles of said generator that luminous discharge lamps shaped in letter form or the like only had to be attached to the front face of the unit in order to be supplied with the required high-frequency pulses. In such arrangement a single lamp bridges a plurality of adjacent electrodes and thus is permeated by a high-frequency field to be triggered into luminescence. The lamps may be attached as desired, no direct metallic connection with the currentsource being required in the case of high frequency, as is well known in the art. It is obvious that such a display means provides an excellent advertising effect, in particular as the various luminous letters or discharge lamps may be mounted, reset or removed as desired, also in operation.

Owing to the capacitive coupling between the electrodes and the lamps, said advertising displays also afford the possibility of putting on said housing first a superficial or skinlike product such as a carpet or the like, and to superpose thereon the luminous letters of which the light on one hand produces the immediate advertising effect and on the other additionally illuminates the product. In place of the latter itself, a picture or the like may be used of course.

These known luminous display means have, however, a very annoying disadvantage. As each luminous letter in most cases bridges a plurality of electrodes, the brightness is impaired at the center of each electrode, which fact is attributable to a distorted or even decaying field. Thereby the advertising efifect is substantially impaired, and the letters may blur.

Said disadvantage is overcome by my present invention which is characterized in that the lamps are secured to one side of a transparent or translucent plate of which the other side carries the additional advertising face, and said plate is disposed between and parallel to the electrodes of a capacitor that is connectable to the high-frequency source, the electrode adjacent said lamps being made of a very thin material that is invisible or imperceptible to an observer of the display.

Thus all of said lamps are situated in a practically homogeneous high-frequency field and thus may be triggered to luminescence in a perfectly uniform manner. It is true in this case that one or the other of the two capacitor electrodes connected to said high-frequency source is situated in front of the lamps, but this one electrode shall be made of a material invisible to an observer of the display, as said before, so as not to substantially impair the visibility of the advertising slogan.

The luminous display disclosed by the present invention suitably is so adapted that the plate carrying said lamps and said additional advertising face is insertable between the electrodes of the high-frequency capacitor. Thus the advertising text may be changed in a very simple way by exchanging the lamps and, if required, the additional advertising face, without requiring any alteration of the electrical part of the generator.

The lamps suitably are secured to said insertable and withdrawable plate by means of a transparent or translucent adhesive. Thus the additional advertising facewhich may comprise a written or printed advertising text, samples of the respective product, pictures of the latter and the like-will be uniformly and discernibly illuminated by the lamps that are stuck to the front face of the movable plate.

The electrode adjacent to the lamps conveniently may be made of glass or a synthetic resin, and the requisite conductivity is obtained by providing this glass plate or synthetic-resin plate with a mesh made from fine wires. Such mesh may be made of wires of about 0.1 millimeter gage or even less. This wire mesh then assumes the task of the capacitor electrode proper, being of sufficiently wide mesh to not substantially impair the visibility of the lamps or of the additional advertising face situated behind same.

In a variant form of the invention, the capacitor elec trode adjacent to said additional advertising face also may be made of transparent material and be provided with a fine-Wire net connectable to the other pole of the highfrequency source if no transparent plastic of adequate conductivity is used. By so adapting this second capacitor electrode, the advertising plate may be used on two sides. The additional advertising face in this case may be formed like a diapositive, which then is intensely illuminated from one side by the lamps that are very close thereto, and may be viewed through said second transparently adapted capacitor electrode.

In order to make the advertisirnent obtained by this display unit as diversified as possible, one may connect in a readily detachable manner the lamps and/ or the additional advertising face to the plate carrying same. In such case suitably is used a transparent and slowly-hardening adhesive, while the additional advertising face is adapted in the manner of a self-sticking foil. When withdrawing the plate carrying this part, the luminous text and the formation of the additional advertising face may be changed as often as desired, whereas in the other case a new plate would have to be made with the desired altered luminous text or advertising face.

One form of the invention is schematically shown in the drawing, in which FIG. 1 is a perspective view of the display unit, and

FIG. 2 shows same in vertical section, depicting details of its structure.

In the housing 1 which is provided with legs 2, is disposed a high-frequency generator (not shown) which may be fed from the mains through a cord 3. The front and rear housing walls comprise a plate 4 made of transparent plastic and a metal plate 5 respectively. Plastic plate 4 is backed by a wide-mesh wire net 6 of approximately 0.1 millimeter gage and this not is connected to one terminal 7 of the high-frequency generator of which the other terminal 8 is connected to metal plate 5. Wire net 6 and metal plate 5 thus form the electrodes of a capacitor, and between same is formed in operation a high-frequency field of force.

Retractible between the capacitor electrodes 5, 6 is a plate 9 made of transparent plastic or the like, to the front side of which are affixed the lamps It by means of a transparent or translucent adhesive 11. On the other hand, plate 9 on its side facing the plate 5 carries an additional adverising face 12 which may consist, for example, of a picture. On account of the arrangement of the lamps in the field of the high-frequency capacitor 5, 6 as shown in FIG. 2, the lamps are excited to the known luminous discharge so that they may be viewed through plate 4 practically without impairment. The lamps 10, moreover, illuminate said additional advertising face 12 very uniformly and without any full-shadow formation, since there are only transparent structural components between the lamps and said face 12. From the front side, therefore, may be viewed not only the lamps 10 but also the brightly illuminated face 12. From this results a view similar to that shown in FIG. 1.

When forming capacitor electrode 5 similar to the electrode shown on the left, in contrast to FIG. 2, an advertising effect may be obtainedthat is effective forwardly as Well as reawardly. To such end it only is required to make face 12 translucent or transparent in the manner of a diapositive. Face 12 then is uniformly illuminated by the lamps 10 through plate 9 and thus also may be viewed from the right. For the sake of a perfectly uniform illumination, plate 9 in this case is made not transparent but rather translucent in the manner of opal or frosted glass, in which case, however, face 12 may be viewed from the right only.

The additional advertising face 12 also may be applied to that side of plate 9 to which are afiixed the lamps 10, whereby face 12 may fill plate 9 entirely or partially.

I claim:

1. In a luminous advertising display unit comprising a housing, a high-frequency generator disposed in said housing, a first transparent plastic plate and a metal plate disposed parallel thereto, these two plates forming the 4. front and rear wall respectively of the housing, a Wire-net attached to the rearside of the first plastic plate and connected to one terminal of said generator, said metal plate being connected to the other generator terminal, said wire-net and said metal plate thus forming the electrodes of a capacitor between which is formed in operation a high-frequency electrical field, a second transparent plastic plate insertible between the capacitor electrodes, and a plurality of luminous discharge lamps attached to the front side of the second plastic plate, said lamps being of a shape to exercise directly an advertising effect, the improvement comprising that an additionalad- Vertising face attached to the rearside of the second plas-.

tic plate and opposite said metal plate, said lamps so connected to the front side of the second plastic plate as to be visible in their full length, and said wire-net c0mprising very thin wires so as to be imperceptible to an observer of the display.

2. A display unit according to claim 1 in which the lamps are secured to the second plastic plate by means of a transparent adhesive.

3. A display unit as set forth in claim 1 in which the lamps are secured to the second plastic plate by means of a translucent adhesive.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,819,105 8/1931 Machlett et al. l30 X 2,731,585 1/1956 Rousseau 40130 X FOREIGN PATENTS 602,057 4/ 1948 Great Britain.

a EUGENE R. CAPOZIO, Primary Examiner.

W. GRIEB, Assistant Examiner. 

1. IN A LUMINOUS ADVERTISING DISPLAY UNIT COMPRISING A HOUSING, A HIGH-FREQUENCY GENERATOR DISPOSED IN SAID HOUSING, A FIRST TRANSPARENT PLASTIC PLATE AND A METAL PLATE DISPOSED PARALLEL THERETO, THESE TWO PLATES FORMING THE FRONT AND REAR WALL RESPECTIVELY OF THE HOUSING, A WIRE-NET ATTACHED TO THE REARSIDE OF THE FIRST PLASTIC PLATE AND CONNECTED TO ONE TERMINAL OF SAID GENERATOR, SAID METAL PLATE BEING CONNECTED TO THE OTHER GENERATOR TERMINAL, SAID WIRE-NET AND SAID METAL PLATE THUS FORMING THE ELECTRODES OF A CAPACITOR BETWEEN WHICH IS FORMED IN OPERATION A HIGH-FREQUENCY ELECTRICAL FIELD, A SECOND TRANSPARENT PLASTIC PLATE INSERTIBLE BETWEEN THE CAPACITOR ELECTRODES, AND A PLURALITY OF LUMINOUS DISCHARGE LAMPS ATTACHED TO THE FRONT SIDE OF THE SECOND PLASTIC PLATE, SAID LAMPS BEING OF A SHAPE TO EXERCISE DIRECTLY AN ADVERTISING EFFECT, THE IMPROVEMENT COMPRISING THAT AN ADDITIONAL ADVERTISING FACE ATTACHED TO THE REARSIDE OF THE SECOND PLASTIC PLATE AND OPPOSITE SAID METAL PLATE, SAID LAMPS SO CONNECTED TO THE FRONT SIDE OF THE SECOND PLASTIC PLATE AS TO BE VISIBLE IN THEIR FULL LENGTH, AND SAID WIRE-NET COMPRISING VERY THIN WIRES SO AS TO BE IMPERCEPTIBLE TO AN OBSERVER OF THE DISPLAY. 